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For Readers

We provide best selling audio and print books you can checkout and download to a wide range of devices.

Kids and Teens can find best selling audio and print books in two new collections: the TEENScollection and the KIDScollection. Try them, and don't forget that you can always go to the main collection for more.

Zinio Digital Newstand Platform offers you access to full digital copies of some of your favorite magazines. You can download and view these titles on your computer or mobile device. Learn more about using Zinio

Hoopla is a free audio and video streaming service available to all Upper Arlington Public Library cardholders. Through Hoopla you have access to thousands of titles in e-book, video, music, audiobook and comic book formats for streaming or temporary download. Check our support page, or download a copy of our Hoopla Instructions sheet.

Hoopla is a free audio and video streaming service available to all Upper Arlington Public Library cardholders. Through Hoopla patrons now have access to thousands of titles in e-book, video, music, audiobook and comic book formats for streaming or temporary download. Content can be enjoyed on smartphones, tablets or computers. Check our support page, or download a copy of our Hoopla Instructions sheet.

New Releases

The Adult Readers' Blog

We all do it to varying degrees. Whether we’re walking past a book display or browsing, we reach for books to which we’re drawn. Book covers are billboards designed to lure in potential readers, offering us a glimpse into the story inside. What specifically is it about a book’s cover though that captures our attention? Is it the graphic? In addition to our brains processing images faster than words, images make us feel something. Is it the author? Well-known authors typically have their names prominently displayed on their covers, making it easy for name recognition to guide a reader’s hand. Is it the title? Since our brains don’t comprehend words at a glance, books with short, pithy titles stand a better chance of breaking through to us. Or, is it a rank-ordered combination of these? It’s different for each of us and can change with mood. Below are some recent books with a variety of cover designs.

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Adult Recommendations

Queen of the Night, by Alexander Chee

In this sprawling novel, set during France’s Second Empire, an American orphan transforms herself from circus performer to courtesan to opera sensation. Along the way, Alexander Chee’s lush prose transports the reader into the midst of Napoleon III’s court, revealing the hard work—and heartbreak—behind the opulence. Readers with an interest in French history or opera will delight in Chee’s thoroughly-researched characters and settings, and in cameos by real historical figures such as George Sand and Cora Pearl. Those with a taste for intrigue will devour the twists and turns of the plot as princes, empresses, courtesans, and musicians scheme for power, love, and revenge.

The Drunken Botanist

In The Drunken Botanist author Amy Stewart points out our alcoholic cocktails over ice with a dash of, splash of, and a sprig of, are time honored drinks. Supplying a little history, horticulture, and agricultural advice, Stewart guides us through various plants and how we create alcohol. Every great drink starts with a plant so sit down, read a chapter or two, and have fun experimenting with the elixir of life, the aqua vitae!

City of the Lost by Kelley Armstrong

What would you be willing to do to walk away from your current life—just disappear? Casey Duncan, a homicide detective, killed a man when she was in college and was never caught. Her best friend, Diana, is entangled in an abusive relationship with her ex-husband. Both need to disappear. Fortunately, there’s a secret town just for people like them but they have to apply and be accepted to live there first; and, there are strings attached. Residents of Rockton must give up their cell phones, internet, and computers, and can’t send or receive mail. Plus, there’s no way to get in or out without the town council’s approval. Casey’s application normally would be rejected but the town needs a homicide detective—badly—to solve its first homicide. Casey and Diana are accepted and brought to Rockton, where they discover things are not always as they seem. Strap yourself in for a crime novel thrill ride!

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Recommended E-Books

Paris in 1918 is a city wracked with grief and shadowed with fear. For Opaline Duplessi, though, it is a refuge from her mother’s dark legacy of magic and her own guilty conscience. Working as a jeweler in the heart of Paris, she meets few people who are unaffected by the war, from her employer’s wounded son to the grieving mothers who seek her out for a last chance at closure. For these mothers, Opaline will use her gifts in lithomancy—the magic of gemstones—to communicate one last message from their sons. Then Opaline meets a ghost who won’t disappear after communicating his last message—a ghost with an uncanny connection to Opaline herself.

As Opaline searches for the man behind the spirit, she is drawn into a conspiracy of White Russians in contact with the exiled Dowager Empress of Russia. But there is a traitor among the conspirators—and if Opaline wants to avoid becoming a ghost herself, she will have to call upon her deepest reserves of strength and her most powerful magics, finally embracing the deadly legacy of La Lune.

Reader Zone

How About A Great Read?

We offer lots of ways to connect our readers with just the right books.

Our collections in this section make it easy for readers to not only identify books that fit their reading interest, but to also download titles at no charge to a media of their choice. So in addition to finding great books, you can read or listen to them whenever you choose.

The resources below will help you find bestseller lists, book discussion guides, reviews, and literary criticisms. You can also download eBooks and eAudiobooks, chat with a librarian for book recommendations, or join an online book club!

Playaway is the newest format of audiobook. It combines an entire book and player in one small unit, which weighs only 2 oz. and fits in your pocket. To view our selection of Playaway titles, go to our catalog, browse by Call Number, type “Play” and hit the Search button orclick here.